Headlines, such as
“We will not be silenced, Pope tells secular Britain” and
“Four days that changed Britain” were the early and closing
remarks printed by the British press during the recent Holy
Father’s visit to the United Kingdom, and were representative of
the mood when he arrived and after his successful visit.

Pope Benedict XVI was the first Pope ever to be
invited by our monarch and her government for a state
visit and, therefore, was quite different to the pastoral visit
of Pope John Paul in 1982. This state visit gave
more emphasis to the Holy Father’s meeting with the Queen,
the government and his address to our society at large.

Christians in Britain have increasingly felt marginalised and unable to
witness their love of God in the public arena, with
secularism gaining a stronghold in this country, and so we
were immensely grateful the Holy Father came to highlight these
dangers to those in power. On thanking the Holy Father
for his visit, Prime Minister Cameron remarked, “You have really
challenged the country to sit up and think, and that
can only be a good thing.”

Regnum Christi in the
UK and Ireland joined together for various opportunities to support
the Holy Father’s visit. We were blessed with a Legionary

Regnum Christi members and 3 Legionaries enjoy dinner together on Friday night.

presence with Frs Michael Mullan and Darren Brennan, who came
from Ireland; Fr Martin Connor (former UK RC Section Director)
from the USA; Fr Peter Shekelton over from Brazil; and
seminarian Br James Shekelton over from Mexico.

Thursday, 16th September

The Holy Father’s arrival and welcome by the Duke of
Edinburgh and the Queen at Holyrood in Scotland, and then
various members of the Royal Family, and lay and religious
dignitaries was witnessed by hundreds of thousands all over Britain,
either in person or through the national media. Some 125,000
lined the streets of Edinburgh to welcome the Holy Father.

At
the Bellahouston Mass, where an estimated 75,000 pilgrims attended, Pope
Benedict said he encouraged “the Catholic professionals, politicians and teachers
of Scotland never to lose sight of their calling to
use their talents and experience in the service of the
faith, engaging contemporary Scottish culture at every level. The evangelisation
of culture is all the more important in our times,
when a ‘dictatorship of relativism’ threatens to obscure the unchanging
truth about man’s nature, his destiny and his ultimate good.
There are some who now seek to exclude religious belief
from public discourse, to privatise it or even to paint
it as a threat to equality and liberty.”

The Pope
then continued individual addresses to the Bishops of Scotland, the
Priests and Religious of Scotland and to the young Catholics
of Scotland. (The complete video recordings of all the Holy
Father´s engagements and transcripts of all the speeches made during
his visit can be found on www.thepapalvisit.org.uk.)

Friday, 17th September

The Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon, Bishop of Nottingham, welcomed the
Holy Father to London at St Mary’s University College in
Twickenham. The Pope addressed the young, saying he hoped there
were some present who would be the future saints of
the 21st century, that God wanted them to become holy
and that he loved them more than they could imagine.
The Pope went on to say that “being highly skilled
in some activity or profession is good, but it will
not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still…True

A view of the Holy Father's arrival to the Hyde Park Vigil in his popemobile.

happiness is to be found in God. We need to
have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God
alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success,
or in our relationship with others, but in God. Only
He can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts… And
once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your
life begins to change…” It was a message that can
apply to us all.

The Holy Father gave an address to
the religious, to teachers, to representatives of other religions, to
politicians and gave an ecumenical celebration during the day. So
many profound speeches were given, all opening our minds towards
a wider awareness of what this country can do.

Saturday,
18th September

On the third day of the papal visit,
hundreds gathered outside London’s Westminster Cathedral where the clergy and
a number of laity of Britain attended a Mass with
the Pope, hearing him speak on the mystery of the
Precious Blood, the abuse of children, the history of the
Catholic Church here, and the clergy’s and laity’s responsibility to
the Church as well as vocations and seminarians.

The Holy
Father’s visited St Peter’s Residential Home, where he spoke compassionately
with the elderly, and then went on to the Hyde
Park Vigil, where an estimated 80,000 pilgrims gathered for an

A moment during the beatification Mass of Cardinal John Henry Newman on Sunday.

evening of prayer and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The silence
during Exposition was so powerful, a tremendous respect and devotion
from so many young and older. The Holy Father asked the
young to be open to God’s call as Christians cannot
continue with “business as usual” nor should society today ignore
the “profound crisis of faith.”

The visiting Legionaries, RC Members from
around the UK and a member from Spain joined their
parishes in Hyde Park, and experienced a unity in the
crowds even if we weren’t all together. After the vigil
ended around 10 pm we drove for 2.5 hours up
to Birmingham to be ready to meet coaches to Cofton
Park at 4:30 am.

Sunday, 19th September

The atmosphere leading up
to the Mass as tens of thousands waited 5 hours
for the Pope to arrive, was magical. It was quite
amazing that an estimated 55,000 people were up at 1:30
in the morning to travel and wait in the cold
and rainy weather for the 10 a.m. beatification Mass. When the
Pope arrived, the sun burst out and there were huge
screams of excitement, but within seconds the atmosphere changed to
the reverence one would expect for a Sunday Mass.

Cardinal
John Henry Newman was an Anglican theologian who was received
into the Catholic Church in 1845, and after his ordination,
he began an Oratorian novitiate with other members of the
old Littlemore community prior to establishing the Oratory of St

A view of the London Brompton Oratory, which now has a new altar in honor of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Philip Neri at Maryvale in 1848, from where it moved
to Birmingham in 1849. This was the first Beatification to take
place in this country; and Cardinal Newman is the first
English “Confessor of Faith” to be beatified in over 600
years.

Wednesday, 22nd September

Six RC UK members, including two Legionaries, attended
a beautiful Mass at the London Brompton Oratory in thanksgiving
to God and in honour of Blessed Newman, where a
newly built altar was blessed by His Grace the Archbishop
of Westminster, the Most Rev. Vincent Nichols. This was a
wonderful way to close the celebrations of Blessed Newman’s beatification.

In
the Papal Audience on 22nd September, the Holy Father said,
“Blessed John Henry Newman´s clear-minded search to know and express
the truth in charity, at whatever cost to his own
personal comfort, status and even friendships, is a wonderful testimony
of a pure desire to know and love God in
the communion of the Church. His is surely an example that
can inspire us all.”